My dear friend Shaden decided to move to Egypt. She’s a great friend and I’m going to miss her.
Family
Easter 2009 – Great Ocean Road, Day 4
Last day! We drove to Port Fairy for breakfast to start the day. Port Fairy is a cute little historic town with an unsavory whaling past. Nowadays it’s a tourist stop on the Great Ocean Road. The town has some gorgeous old buildings and lovely cafes. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and took a stroll around the waterfront – around an island area that used to be home to an Aboriginal tribe.
We cut cross country to get back to the airport, stopping along the way at Tower Hill, an area that was formed by a volcano. We went on several bush walks along the crater rim and saw wild animals like emus and more koalas.
Sadly it was then time to head back to make our plane at Avalon. We had one last stop in Geelong to watch the sunset, then it was back home to rainy Sydney …
Easter 2009 – Great Ocean Road, Day 3
After breakfast we head off to Cape Otway Lightstation for scones and tea, plus a stunning view of the coast.
We then head on up the coast to Port Campbell National Park, where the Twelve Apostles are.
Along the way we stopped at the majestic Gibson Steps and then at the Twelve Apostles look out. The Twelve Aposltes were very beautiful, but after seeing so many photos they weren’t as impressive as the rest of the rock formations I knew nothing about.
I really loved Loch Ard Gorge (below), named after a clipper ship that ran aground nearby in 1878. We also stopped by the London Arch (formerly London Bridge until it collapsed while people were on it).
We drove out of the park until we reached our destination for the evening, Warrnambool. Nothing much to report here – it’s a great place to stop during whale season, but that’s about it. The whales have their babies right off shore, so it would be great to pass by again at the right time.
Easter 2009 – Great Ocean Road, Day 2
Today we planned a day of nature. We drove the long way to Otway Fly, a walk through the national park that includes a boardwalk through the trees. There were lots of people there unfortunately, which ruined the ambiance somewhat, but it was still a majestic walk through the treetops, looking at some amazingly tall trees and huge ferns.
Our next stop was Triplet Falls, a bush walk that wound past three waterfalls.
We had hoped to visit another waterfall after this, and drove there quickly as the sun was starting to sink in the sky. We figured we had about 30 mins until the sun set, so dashed through the bush trying to find the waterfall before the sun completely set and we were left in the dark in the bush. It was a little like being in a movie where the main characters do something completely stupid, like run into the bush at sunset with no phones, torches or supplies and then get eaten by rodents of unusual size … after about 15 minutes of running through the bush and still not finding the waterfall, we admitted defeat and quickly returned to the car – just in time to get back to the road before dark completely fell.
Dinner was at one of Apollo Bay’s most highly recommended venues, Buff’s Bistro, an Italian / contemporary Australian little place that was booked out solid the whole time we were there. The food was delish, the staff friendly and the wine they served was local and matched well to the meals. Yum!
Easter 2009 – Great Ocean Road, Day 1
For our first Easter weekend for just the two of us, we decided to drive the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. We flew down to Avalon Airport after work on Thursday night and spent Good Friday checking out Geelong (what’s with the weird peg people?) and then driving along the coast.
We had a quick stop at Torquay, then drove on to Bells Beach, where the Rip Curl Surf Pro was being held. We stopped off for a while and watched the grommet competition that was being run at the time. Next stop was Anglesea for lunch and a play on the beach, followed by a stop off at Airley Inlet lighthouse, which was used in the TV series “Round The Twist”.
It was then a windy drive to out evening accommodation in Apollo Bay. The road hugs the coast line so the whole drive is amazingly picturesque. Somewhere along one of the endless stretches of road we saw a few people had pulled their cars over and we standing around pointing their cameras into the bush. Being the stickybeak I am and always after a good photo, I pulled over also, and found that they were photographing koalas in the wild – right by the side of the road!
The koalas were sooo cute. Sleepy, grumpy little people. and they were really close to is – so close I could have reached our and given one a little pat if I didn’t think it might have gouged my eyes out for waking it from its eucalyptus-induced coma.
We spent tonight and the following night at a cute little BnB called Captain’s On The Bay – highly recommend.
Oh hai! Don’t disturb my nomming!
Happy Birthday Alec!
This year Alec had birthday week – it was a big birthday after all 🙂
Highlights from the week were a dinner at Thairiffic with Daniel and Hedviga (complete with birthday flan) and then our dinner tonight at Bartino – Spanish tapas, followed by dessert from Lindt. Delicious!
Happy birthday Alec. I love you times a million.
xx
Andrew Calman’s Farewell
Our dear friend Andrew is moving to Google NYC. He had a barbeque today in Centennial Park with family and friends to say goodbye to the Calmanator era.
I’m sorry to see another friend leave the country, but we will be staying with Calman (hopefully!) when we are in NYC in July, so we have something fun to look forward to.
We had such a lovely day, sitting in the autumn sun with friends and hanging out with the Duffs, Calman and his friends and family.
Baby Liam Duff and mum Chantal are too adorable for words.
Close-up!
Nom nom nom!
The most photographed baby in the world 🙂
Boys bond for the last time in Sydney.
Umm … I don’t know what to say about this.
Daniel’s Surprise 30th Birthday Party
While Alec was in Mountain View we were organising a surprise 30th birthday party for his best friend, Daniel. It was quite a lot of organising, and I was a little concerned that things would completely fall apart at the last minute, but everything went to plan and the birthday boy was both totally surprised and happy to see all of his friends gathered for the occasion.
Daniel blows out the candles … yes, that is a swan cake.
Alec was so tired by this stage. I picked him up at the airport at 7am, then the cake at 9am. We both look tired and relieved that it all worked out!
Happy 30th Daniel!
Alec in Mountain View
While I was sweating it out at the corporate games, Alec was working hard at Google Mecca. He took my beautiful camera with him to claim tax back and played around with it – including the photo below. It was just too delightful not to blog 🙂
More New Camera Pics
Just more playing around with my beautiful new camera.
